BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Housing policy should be part of a broader system of urban planning and sustainable development, Ishigaki Kazuko, Director of the UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, said, Trend reports.
She made the remark during a panel discussion "The Rechargeable Landscape Powering Sustainable, Resilient Housing with Nature-Based Systems" held within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) in Baku.
According to her, the successful execution of any structural housing initiative remains completely unfeasible without systematically reinforcing institutional capacity at the grassroots level, specifically targeting local self-governance bodies and community networks.
"Even the most well-designed political and regulatory frameworks cannot transform into practical, field-level operations without direct support and deep capacity-building pipelines deployed at the local municipal layer," Ishigaki pointed out.
The UN-Habitat representative emphasized the critical need for an integrated, human-centric approach to metropolitan growth. She noted that long-term housing policies must maintain strict structural links with urban architectural design, landscape planning, and the universal delivery of baseline public utilities and services.
Ishigaki concurrently highlighted the surging demand among nations across the Asia-Pacific basin for structured, cross-border knowledge transfers regarding sustainable urbanization models. She reported that the Asia Townscape Award, founded in 2010, has evolved into a vital multilateral clearinghouse to showcase successful field practices and facilitate mutual data sharing among municipal governments and spatial experts.
According to the regional director, contemporary urban development projects rolling out across Asia-Pacific showcase highly innovative methodologies to tackle ecological sustainability, preserve tangible cultural heritage, and embed grassroots communities directly into the initial master-planning and execution workflows.
She stressed that these synchronized localized initiatives are central to accelerating progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11), which dictates the construction of inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities.
Concluding her address, Ishigaki underlined that the World Urban Forum in Baku delivers an unparalleled platform to advance these integrated frameworks, effectively bridging the intersections between housing supply, urban topography, renewable energy grids, and active civic participation in metropolitan evolution, she concluded.
Meanwhile, today Baku is hosting the final day of WUF13.
On the first day of the forum, a ministerial meeting on the New Urban Agenda, a ministerial roundtable, women’s and civil society assemblies, business sessions, and discussions on urban well-being took place. The forum also featured a flag-raising ceremony for the UN and Azerbaijan.
The second day of the forum was marked by the first-ever Leaders’ Summit. On this day, high-level discussions were held on the global housing crisis, urbanization policy, and urban sustainability. Also, as part of WUF13, the Mexico City pavilion was inaugurated, presented as a key platform for expanding cooperation with the Latin American region and preparing for WUF14.
The third day of WUF13 was also marked by an extensive program of events. Discussions on this day covered topics such as the global housing crisis, the creation of safe and inclusive cities, climate resilience, artificial intelligence and urban governance, “green” urbanization, social equality, and sustainable transportation.
One of the highlights of the third day was the signing of a sister-city agreement between the Azerbaijani city of Shusha and the Turkish city of Trabzon.
The fourth day of WUF13 featured an extensive program of events dedicated to the themes of urbanization, climate change, inclusive urban development, housing policy, and sustainable management.
On the fifth day of the forum, discussions continued on the global housing crisis, the creation of safe and inclusive cities, climate resilience, the use of artificial intelligence in urban management, “green” urbanization, and social equality.
One of the key events of the Cities Forum of the United Nations Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), held on the fourth day, was the announcement of Almaty’s official accession to the “Declaration of Intent on the Establishment of the SPECA Forum on Smart Cities Resilient to Climate Change.”
Also, for the first time in WUF history, the “WUF13 NGO Forum: Global Partnership and Decision-Making” was held at the initiative of Azerbaijan.
The WUF13 Forum, dedicated to the theme “Housing the world: Safe and resilient cities and communities", brought together governments, international organizations, experts, and civil society representatives to strengthen global cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development. More than 40,000 people from 182 countries registered to participate in the forum.
